Wybuster/Collapserpent

Aside from being borderline unplayable, the art is something to talk about right?

They go right into Chaos Dragons, special summoning themselves with good restrictions and balanced effects actually.

But what you might not realize for a while is that how much they look like Light Pulsar/Darkflare dragons.

Like... when they were kids...

A quick pic for reference

On totally unrelated note Kodomodragon is apparently "The Return of Dragunity"

So I'm looking forwards to Jump Festa this weekend. I dont know how much card gaming I will be doing, but I shall see.
Theres talk online of a lot of cheaters, as it isnt a very high level event with deck checks, people cheat by playing multiples of cards.
For example, in the past: 5 Gate of the Six Samurai, 4 Insektor Dragonfly.
This year, all the rage is 6 Windup Shark + 4 Tour Guides is blowing up online.

But that does explain the use of Dark Designator in Jump Festa events I've seen in the past...
Imagine my face when I hit a Dark Designator with Dual Spark o.O

Yeah. This.

/sezuar

So. Chaos Dragons are still a thing

Recent championships have been showing Chaos Dragons to be quite the fighting force.

For instance, 32 players, 8 heros, 1 chaos dragons. 1st place chaos dragons, 2nd place heros, remainder windups/darkworlds.


But the most interesting thing I notice about Chaos Dragons is their lineups nowadays.

2 Debris Dragon (Into Orient Dragon)
3 Effect Veiler, 2 max G
0 Traps
2 Mainboard Seal of Orichalchos
3 Deck Destruction Virus sideboarded
3 Darkflare Dragon

Its like they took every "good" monster the deck ever had, maxed out on them, and just ran with it and a few spells.

No night shot, only 3 Cyclones. And ZERO traps, only pumping out your own monsters and such. Not even Dark Hole

A bold move, but an interesting trend nonetheless.

Heraldic Generation

Good day, and welcome to THE 堕天 DUELIST, where we learn about more than just tier 1.

 So, today, we talk Heraldic Beasts.

Just looking at the individual cards, they seem powerful enough right?

Free +1s from graveyard for no reason?
A compulsary tutor even when used as an exceed material?
Said tutor having a 2000 ATK body?
Free special summoning of exceed monsters from the graveyard?
One card exceed summon from the graveyard?
The ability to play 4 Monster Reborn?

God even the less than powerful cards such as Basilisk seem good on their own.

So, what is the problem in the deck? Why isnt it being played?

Easy. It takes time to set up, and it doesnt have a future fusion to abuse.

So, what cards can we use to speed up this set up process?

The obvious Foolish Burial is unfortunately limited, so what about our other options.

Summon Priest.
Since all of our Heraldic Beasts are level 4, just pull one out and make an exceed. Sets up when the exceed dies.

Lavalbal Chain
Summon, activate effect, Dump a Leo, gain advantage.

Dire Wolf
When you need those exceed materials you used to head right on back to the graveyard

No. 10 Illuminator
Never a better graveyard set up engine than discarding then drawing

Miracle Dig/Burial From a Different Dimension
You're removing these Heraldic Beasts for their effects anyhows, why not just bring them back for more ridiculous advantage garnering

Pheonix Wing Wind Blast
Control on your defense and a nice discard outlet.


And now for the true gems of set up:

Chain Destruction
No, not Chain Dissapearance. Chain Destruction is a card, when a 2000 or lower monster is summoned. you can activate, destroying the cards with the same name in the deck, hand.
While this isnt usually a great strategy, its the perfect card we need to dumping multiple cards of the same name for some sweet setups.
Also, these also trigger Leo twice. Free 2 cards!

Generation Change
Generation Change is a trap card that destroys one monster from your field and special summons a monster with the same name from your deck. As with chain destruction, this doesnt necessarily mean losing advantage, as cards like Leo allow you to get advantage right back, and Aberconway can mean late game salvaging.



And now, the Decklist

14
3 Heraldic Beast Leo
3 Heraldic Beast Aberconway
1 Heraldic Beast Basilisk
1 Heraldic Beast Earley
1 Heraldic Beast Twin Head Eagle
2 Heraldic Beast Unicorn
2 Summon Priest
1 Green Baboon, Guardian of the Forest

17
3 Advanced Heraldic Art
2 Reborn Medallion
1 Foolish Burial
3 Exceed Gift
1 DDR - Different Dimensional Revival
1 Heavy Storm
2 MST
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
2 Pot of Duality

10
2 Chain Destruction
1 Generation Change
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Pheonix Wing Wind Blast
1 Solemn Judgement

So, the first thing that might stick out to you is the low monster count.

Yes, 14 may be a very low monster count, but not only does the deck account for this by running Reborn Medallions for more monster recursion(Leo), the 5 of the decks monsters directly tutor out monsters, and the 3 Aberconway gives you even more monster salvage ability

Different Dimension Revival could also be Burial From a Different Dimension, but I prioritised picking a discard outlet in addition to the summoning.

Now, you may notice the 3 Exceed Gifts.
Most decks would not run any at all, since it defeats the purpose of having exceeds in the first place.
But when you are bringing out Rank 4 exceeds left right and center through special summoning effects and medallion arts, these let you get those materials back into the graveyard.
I wanted to add Generation Force to the deck to search out these cards, but there wasnt any space.

Some rank 4s have no drawback to having no materials, such as Hope, since you just go into Hope Ray.
Another potential draw source would be pot of avarice, returning your exceeds to draw cards.

Did I mention Using Leo as a material gives you his effect when hes detatched?
Use this to your advantage by making rank 4s with 2 Leos, then dumping both materials for a Exceed Gift. 2 Cards into 2 draw and 2 search. Pretty boss.

Thats all for today.

/sezuar

IRL

Good afternoon my readers, and welcome to THE 堕天 DUELIST, where we learn about more than just tier 1.

The first thing I would like to do is to share with you this news article

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/society/news/2012/12/10/kiji/K20121210004748760.html

Now, it is in Japanese, but this being the internet and all, I'm sure you all have heard some sort or form of the story.

If you haven't, heres the low down:
A 29 Year old was playing against a 11 year old in Yugioh at a card store.
After 2 games, which the 29 year old won, the 11 year old kid left.
The 29 year old strongly provoked the 11 year old for another game, and the 11 year old got pissed and knocked over the table (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)  (it says knocked over the cards, but I'd like to think the kid flipped over the table)

In response, the 29 year old beat up the 11 year old. In the face, and was later arrested for doing so.

...

Wait. What?
That rather disproportionate, dont you think?


Yes, the cards fell... onto the ground, but he beat up a kid over it.

Sometimes, in the amount of connection we have to everyone else in the yugioh world, and how large we grow our yugioh world, and how much we grow our technique and knowledge of hte game...

its very easy to lose track of ourselves in our engrossment with our hobby, and lose track of the greater scope of things.

It is very important to take a step back sometimes and take a breather, and re-assess something from the outside, from a completely different perspective.

In context of the article, it would be to take a step back, and notice how yuigoh isnt as big a part of some peoples lives as it is some others.
For some, yugioh represents a very small portion of their lives. They have one box and one deck and just bust it out to play an odd game every few weeks.
For others, it represents a daily routine of working on decks and hammering out the perfect decklist to chase the prizes, and attending championships on an almost twice a week basis, reading the top articles and maybe writing out your own.
For yet others, they watch the values of cards like the stocks and are keen and sharp traders looking to make every extra cent out of anyone they can.
Likewise, some people have high rarity english decks, expensive card sleeves, and the entire set worth several tens of thousands of yen. while other people run around with dollar sleeves and super low rarities of everything, playing on a harsh budget.

But, when you come together with another person, you have to consider the other persons point of view as well.

One of the reasons I don't play on Dueling Network or EternalDream or ADS is that I believe that card gaming is more than just cardboard slinging. Its cardboard slinging with another person.

Human interaction is part of human life, and taking different perspectives at things is part of human interaction.

Card games and board games are mediums through which people develop different aspects of their interaction skills, or at least ideally they are.

Take some time and a step back and re-assess how much a part of your life is gaming, and rethink whether that amount is what you want it to be, and if it isnt, take steps to either make it more or less of your life.

Oh, and since you all are so mouth watering for actual proper YGO news, this being a yugioh blog and not a psychology/life advice blog and all.

This image been flying around the forums.

/sezuar

Flame Lords

Special summon Gardonix

Activate Seal of Orichalchos
Blow up Gardonix.

Next turn effect trigger

Vanguard Banlist

Quite the interesting choice.
It is a list of cards that you may have up to 2 of in one deck.

As in, you may pick up to 2 cards from the list to have in your deck.

I think this is an interesting approach to the banlist system, something no other game has tried.

FTK Friday - GAWD! AN FTK?

God Day, God Evening, God Morning, God Affernoon, God Midnight.

Wherever you are, hello, and welcome to ZA 堕天 DUELIST.

And its Friday! and the First Friday of the month....

So you know what that means....

FIRST TURN KILL TIME!!!

So, welcome to this months FTK Friday: GAWD, an FTK!?

So, what cards will we be abusing this month?

Awwww yeah. thats right boys and girls,

If you're going to FTK anyhow, why not summon a GOD before ending them.

Of course, running just one isnt cool enough, nor showing off of how stable your deck is, so lets run ALL THREE!

You know, it would be really cool if there was a card that rewarded us even more for summoning all three of the gods.

Something... some reward that cant be stopped... and just wins. Just wins.

Oh. Right.

There is!

So, basically this says: Tribute All 3 Gods. Win.

So, lets get to it!

And now, the article name makes sense right?
GAWD FTK!


So, Todays decklist:


神のみぞ知るＦＴＫ

21
1 Giant Soldier of Obelisk
1 Sky Dragon of Osiris
1 Winged Dragon of Ra
1 Horakhty, Creator of Light
3 Tethys Goddess of Light
3 Holy Shine Ball
2 Agent of Mystery Earth
3 Agent of Creation Venus
3 Hecaterice
3 Master Hyperion

20
2 One Day of Peace
3 Upstart Goblin
1 Monster Reborn
3 Reload
3 Mystical Hammer
2 Hand Destruction
2 Magical Stone Excavation
2 Valhalla Hall of the Fallen
1 Dual Summon

As you can see, no FTK is without a crazy good draw engine going on.

For us, the draw engine we will be using is Tethys, the Goddess of Light.

So, whenever you draw a Fairy, you can reveal that fairy and draw one card.
So, if that is a fairy as well, you can reveal it an draw another!

Although this gives you a lot of cards, this requires a lot of fairys in your deck.
Hence, we use the bestest of the best fairys out there, Agents and Master Hyperion.

Master Hyperion doubles as tribute fodder.
Such great logic here at  堕天 duelist. "Cool boss monster! That would be really great as tribute fodder!"

Back on topic with Tethys, if you really want to draw a bunch of cards, you use other cards to draw as well as they would also trigger tethys.

As such, we run: Reload, Hand Destruction, Mystical Hammer, Upstart Goblin, and One Day of Peace.
As this is a search/draw/mulligan engine in itself, you want to dig up your Tethys by the first turn, get it out with Valhalla (Searched out by Hecatrice), fire off a reload/mystical hammer returning all fairies, and get the crazy draw going.

(Draw! Monster card! Draw! Monster Card! Draw! Monster Card!)

Once you get a lot of cards (read: your entire deck) in your hand, you can start doing crazy things.

Summon a Venus or some Master Hyperion. use their effects, activate Dual Summon, summon a god.

Discard a god using Hand Destruction. Revive it with Monster Reborn

Discard 2 cards for Magical Stone Excavation. Get back Monster Reborn  to get another god card.

Keep in mind that Dual Summon can only give you ONE more summon per turn, hence we only run 1.


And now that you have all 3 gods out, tribute all of them for a Horakhty.

Oh, whats this? Skill Drain you say?

Well, Horakhty's "I win" condition has been ruled to be, like Exodia, not be on a chain and be, in fact, a rules effect.

IE: You get all 3 Gods out, they cannot start a chain in response to the summons, you regain priority, tribute all 3 for Horakhty, win. Horakhty cannot be negated nor can its effect be stopped, period.


Other options for additional cards include: The Shallow Grave for getting that one more summon, DDR + Soul Release, for being even more a bause by getting all 3 gods FROM THE REMOVED FROM PLAY ZONE, Exodia, because why not.
What other ideas do you guys have?

Note the fact that this deck's monsters can function barely with just the monsters.

Hyperion, Venus, Earth, all top class picks, as with Valhalla.

Turn 1: Hecaterice into Valhalla into Venus into 3 Balls, release 3 for Osiris. Osiris standing at 3k, deck thinned by 4 cards. Pretty boss.
Opponent cannot: Wind Up, Hero, Mermail, Rabbit, Tour Guide, Flame Dance, Core Chimail,  Hieratic, X Saber, Grave Keepers, Six Samurai, Insectors, Froggy Frogs for jack shit.

Turn 1: Hecaterice into Valhalla into Venus into 3 Balls, release 3 for Obelisk. Obelisk standing at 4k, deck thinned by 4 cards. Pretty boss-er.
If opponent is playing: Dark Worlds, Chaos Dragons, Gladiator Beasts, Heros, or anything that banks on spot removal, kindly remind them that they have ZERO outs in their deck to the situation, as Obelisk cannot be targeted. Oh Snap.

Turn 1: Hecatrice into Valhalla into Tethys. Activate one day of peace, draw 1 reveal and draw another. Dont FTK because they thing you're a scrub and they wont OTK thanks to one day of peace. Enter your next draw phase and draw your deck.


Thats all for this month's FTK.

until next time,

/SezUAr

Summon! Osiris!

Summon! Osiris!
NO! SOLEMN JUDGEMENT!!! PAY 4k!

OK! OSIRIS RESOLVES! ATTACK FOR 5k!

So, lately I've been messing around with Heiratic Osiris.

Other than being incredibly fun, Its actually quite stable and suprisingly explosive.

Apparently you can solemn warning/judgement the god cards, they just wont do anything, and you waste your cards.
It was just someone's ruling at the store today, so I havent looked it up, but yeah. If you ever want to make one last struggle before death, solemn an Osiris. Totally a smart move.


But on to the discussion of Heiratic Osiris.

See, most builds do the same thing, and other than the staples and entire engine itself, the deck actually has a total of 5-7 empty slots for "Tech"

Some people play Black Garden.

It gets you your tribute fodder(yay), clogs the opponents field with tokens(so many decks nowadays hardly run tuners its not a disadvantage anymore. They cant get rid of them by exceeds!

And, with Osiris, there are 2 very nice interactions.

The first, being a god card, No chain can start when this card is normal/special summoned.
 This means that Black Garden will never get a chance to halve Osiris's attack!

The second is using it against opponents.
Now, whenever a monster is normal/special summoned, the following chain happens.
For examples sake, lets pick Rescue Rabbit. Because thats totally a genius move when staring down an Osiris.

So, they normal summon Rabbit.
Since Black Garden and Osiris have the same trigger, Simultaneous Effects Go On Chain, so you build the chain like this:
Chain 1: Osiris
Chain 2: Black Garden.

So black garden halves their attack in chain 2, gives you a token, and then Osiris eats up the halved attack.
Yep, thats right, this means that Osiris eats EVERYTHING smaller than 4001 ATK.
Not even The Wicked God Dreadroot gets through.
Dayyyummmmmm

Use this with Dark Simorgh. Pretty much wins you the game.

Now, another of the super cool cards that people chose to run is the 5 Exodia Parts.

No lie, some people play Heiratic Osiris and splash Exodia.

So, how does this work?

Well, the backbone of the deck, as we all know, since tier 1 competitive decks isnt everything in yugioh,
Is Tributing a bunch of Heiratics, getting tribute fodder for Osiris, and then tributing them for Osiris.
A lot of tributing, no?

So, to go with Osiris, people run Super Rejuvenation, since whats better than Osiris on the field?
Osiris on the field, setting all your hand as backrow, then drawing 10. Thats what.

So, for this draw 10+, people just decided to play in Exodia, since, why not.
Osiris on field, 3-4 backrow, and draw 10.
Discard 4? Naw im good. Exodia.

Almost as fun as Flame Dance Core Chimails, which, a suprisingly large amount of people as their sub non tourney deck.

/sezuar

FTKs in the format

Nope, not One Turn Kill,

First Turn Kill.

Usually, FTKs use either a massive burn effect, multiple of them, to win.

Its just that during my testing and research, some things has popped up on the topic of FTKs:

1: There are a lot of FTKs that are viable in this format
2: Holy crap they're actually stable.
3: Like, actually really considering bringing to tournaments stable.

The current format has a lot of viable tier 1-1.5 decks, and nobody seems to be using them FTK styles.

Isnt that a sign of a healthy format?

Where even though an FTK is viable people dont use it?

Just some actual FTKs in the format people use:

Tempest burn
Infernity Gagaga loop
Gransoil + Windups loop
Angels

and im sure everyone knows one or two more

/sezuar

Today at a CS

Chain 2 Macro Cosmo
Chain 3 Verz Thunderbird

Opponent: Ok.

Chain starts resolving, Verz Thunderbird jumps.
Chain 2 resolves, Macro Cosmos, Special summon helios from Deck.

Opponent: Wait wait! you cant do that! JUDGE!!

Oh dont you love it when the opponent gets warnings for stalling by calling judges

Surrender VS Getting Killed

Hello everybadyy

Today, we will be reviewing Surrendering and comparing it to taking the damage or combo to the face and losing.

So, as we all know, both actions result in a game loss.

But what factors play into whether you surrender or take the defeat coming your way?

The first factor is time.

Most tournament scenes have a 50 minutes match system, where you only have 50 minuites to finish the match.

Once the match has gone to time, it either ends with one person winning, or a draw.

Now, say you are 1-0 in the current game, and your opponent is windups and doing their OTK.

Take a quick look at your clock. If you still have a good amount of time, surrender the game, giving you more time to side out and make changes and to have more time on the final game, more turns and more time to think.
The going first and extra time just might give you the few turns or seconds it takes to avoid the opponent stalling out for a draw.
However, if you are, say, 0-1 and the opponent is going off, just stall a bit, keep in the game, and pray that you can turn that  0-2 into a draw.

So, obviously it saves time on the round. What else is there?

The next big thing is Information Advantage.
Now, the more cards you play out, the more information the opponent has on your deck.
Information advantage is very big, as we have discussed many many times before.
There are some cards that are played in only one deck and hence playing that card completely blows your entire decklist out of the water
And some cards like Dark hole, MST, etc that everyone plays like and so they shed no light on information on your opponents deck.

Another good time to scoop over taking the full combo is when you have information you want to conserve.
Some cards like Beast King Barbaros seem like versatile cards, but only actually appear in one style of deck(TG Beast Warriors w/ Drain). So, instead of playing that card and trying to stall out your very inevitable doom(you're in a situation where youre contemplating surrender. Come on.), conserve your information advantage to get the edge after sideboarding.

Conversely, if you dont know what your opponent is playing, instead try to drag the game out, to goad out information on what deck they're playing, and the various combos, and work at beating them.
 
So, say you have a beast king barbaros in your hand with nothing else, and your opponent has a field full of 3.5k power or something impossible like that.

Set your Beast King, and try to goad out more information advantage on what deck theyre playing, and any tech they want to act cute by running.
Then, when they destroy or attack your face down beast king, surrender in response and conserve information on your deck.


Thats all
/sezuaR

Insect Imitation

Normal Spell
Release a monster. Special summon an insect monster with 1 more level than the released monster from your deck.

What. The. Hell.

Agent of Creation Venus + Insect Imitation + Insector Gullh (Ladybug??(actually hornet also works here) = OTK

Which would sound like a stupid idea until you consider that
1: Both decks are among the contenders for top of the format
2: Light + Dark and we all know what fun that is
3: Each of these cards works super well in the deck without any needed support.

Again, the problem card is Insector Dragonfly.

Much like the Archfiend of Gilfer + Insector Dragonfly + Insector Hornet = 14k+ Power on the board combo

But back on the topic.
The card gives insectors their instant search for Dragonfly.

Imagine opening with Gullh and Insect Imitation.

"Lolololol normal gullh cast imitation make shock master strike bouncer tyrus zenmine and leviair, set starlight road solemn judgement and divine wrath turn"

Ok not so broken but you get the idea.
Its also your search card for Hornet, because having hornet hard to find totally wrecked insectors.


And once again considering the Agents/Insector combination deck

You gain access to Synchros(Earth is a tuner.), and since you're RFPing for Chaos Sorcerer/Soldier anyhows, use Leviair to snatch the Earth back for synchro summons.

So, instead of the 2 card full field combo, you instead have Hyper librarian to draw you like 4 cards before becoming a Shooting Quasar Dragon and summoning more random exceeds at next to no cost.

Totally not OP. Trust me.
Then summon Hyperion, Chaos Soldier, and Dark Armed Dragon.
Still balanced. I'm sure.

/sezuar

Compulsary Escape Device

No, not compulsary evacuation device. Everyone knows how good that is,

Compulsary Escape Device, that bad rare card from REDU

The one that makes each player return one monster to their deck.

What uses does it have?

Well, the obvious one is Madolche. By returning a card to your deck, your ticket allows you to get the advantage lost right back

What about Phantom Skyblaster?
You can either return the skyblaster itself to the deck and re-use the effect, lifting the "Cannot Attack" on the token, or return the token, losing no advantage

And E-Hero Wildman.
Summon him, and target him on resolution to return nothing and have the opponent fly back to the deck

Reborn Tengu.
Have one in the graveyard already? No problem. Return it to the deck, and a new chain triggers as Tengu reborns himself to the field.
 So apparently this doesnt work. According to Yugioh, leaving the field to go to the deck does not count as "Leaving the Field".
Thanks Akira.


Core Chimails can use the overpowered Urknight to special summon a card once a turn, then return it to stop it from self destructing.

On the topic of Core Chimails, have you tried using the new Flame Dances with them?

Activate Tenki, search Urknight. Summon Urknight, pull out a Crusader by revealing the Iron core.
You now have 2 level 4s at 2100 and 2000 respectively, at the cost of 1 card.
Not enough Continuous spells in your hand for Ice? No Beast Warrior for Urknight and Crusader?
Overlay! Make a Rank 4 exceed.

/sezuar

Demonic Motor Omega

Have you guys see this thing?

Its english name is Fiendish Engine Omega
it is a rather old card, but Two new cards make this really interesting.

The first is The Charging Emperor.
With this card out on the field, not only can your demonic motor not be targetted by effects, it cannot be destroyed by effects either.

Need I mention this includes its own effects?

Yes, this means that your Demonic Motor can always self pump himself, without being destroyed.
3800 the first turn, then 4800 the next turn, and 5800 after that!
Yes it doesnt say "Until the end phase"

The second card that makes the tokens he creates really useful is the Seal of Orichalchos.
Now, since they cannot  attack your weaker monsters, those tokens are chilling out there to be tributed the next turn

/sezuar

Making the Cut #1 - Part 1

Hello ladies.

Look at your battle pack deck
Now back to your deck
Now back to me.
Sadly, your deck isnt me,

but you stopped randomly putting cards together and switched to listening and practicing, it could be a bit like me.

So everyone, welcome to our first issue of "Making the Cut".

During this blog post, you will follow me through as I go from 10 un-opened battle packs, my thoughts on each individual pack, the pulls, and the construction of the sealed deck from the pool.

While I know my pulls wont be the same as yours, I will describe each individual cut from the pool to build the deck, so you can use similar thought processes in building your deck.

Additionally, instead of building a 40 card deck, I will be building a 30 card deck, THEN making another 5 cuts, down to 25 cards, to help illustrate the thoughts that go into cutting a card from the deck a bit more, as well as showing what cards would swap out in the side.


For those who just want to skip to the deck Construction, Click Here To JUMP!
Thats part 2, deck construction.
Part 1 is our pulls and preliminary deck construction, just throwing in whats good for a draft deck.

So, on we go!

Before we start, keep an eye on how I lay out my cards to take a good overlook at my deck.
I lay out all the slot 1s together, the slot 2s, slot 3s, slot 4s, and starfoils.
Because each of the slots does a different thing, this lets us take a good look at the focus of powerful cards for each slot, which cards has the most really nice cards, and which slots shouldnt be bothered with really.


Pack 1:
Burden of the mighty
Grave squirmer
Voltic kong
Ducker mobile cannon
Vortex trooper

Burden of the Mighty, I am quite a big fan of. It is an instant combat advantage. Combat is a big part in sealed, and you want to be using high attack monsters to shut out their offensive.
With this out, one high defense monster beats everything. Seriously.

Grave Squirmer.
a removal card. It again is a high pick, taking out some high power and troublesome monsters that you might come up against, as well as destroying some backrow thats giving you problems. Skill drain, Burden of Mighty, anything else continuous.
When I see this card I really want to open a Creature swap.

Voltic Kong
1800 beater. Mill isnt relevant.

DUCKER mobile cannon
This card is useful if you dont have enough level 4s, as it gives the level 4s recursion.
Also, quite the card if you have a good amount of defensive cards, and Rank 3 exceeds.

Vortex Trooper
A similar card to Grave Squirmer, I wasnt expecting to get both in one pack.
This card can help you cycle through some cards if you summon it, or you can set it for a draw when its destroyed.
The on summon ability is really great if: You have a good rank 3 and level 3 lineup, or you have creature swap.

IN: Grave Squirmer, Burden of the Mighty.

Pack 2
Gachigachi Gantetsu
Shadow Spell
Zombyra the Dark
Night Assailant
Offerings to the Doomed

Gachigachi:
Oh god so powerful... If you can summon it. Being an Exceed, its an instant IN for the deck.

Shadow Spell
This card is really great. It chains down an opponents monster for you to kill the next turn, as well as reducing their damage output.
However, you want to destroy the opponents monster as soon as possible, so keep in mind using this on your own turn, just to kill something.
Theres nothing sadder than Shadow spell-ing something, then it being tribuited for a DMOC.
If they have already normal summoned, its a good time to use this.

Zombyra the Dark.
2100 Attack. Kills every other high beater. Then becomes a 1900 high beater.
Cards I really want to see with this card: Skill Drain, Interdimensional Matter Transporter(reset Zombyra), etc.

Night Assailant.
Oh yay more kill monsters when attacked!
Doubles as retieval for flip effects, but I'm not sure if theres many discard outlets in the deck.
Oh, and it isnt limited in sealed, so if I pull more discard effects like Raigeki Break, and a second Night Assailant, wow, he becomes a Killer Snake.
Cards I want to see with him: Cybernetic Magician.

Offerings to the Doomed.
Quickplay. Kills stuff.
I think this is an instant IN, as its 2 cards sacrificed to kill something. You want to be targeting stuff that comes out with 2 tributes or an exceed.
Battle pack isnt as much about card advantage as it is about board advantage, and I think this is a good example.

IN:
Gachigachi, Shadow Spell, Zombyra, Offerings to the Doomed.

Pack 3:
Pot of Greed
Ante
Skileld White Magician
Giant Soldier Of Stone
Goblindbergh

Pot of Greed
Oh god instant in. Not broken, necessarily, but pretty damn powerful.

Ante Match
I want to be using this with cards like Gorz and Tragoedia, to knock out not only their cards and deal damage but to outright make them slow play or have to play around trago and Gorz, severely limiting their options.
Cards I want to see:
Gorz, Trago, Level 8s.

Skilled White Magician.
Not that sold on it, until I can pull a Buster Blader

Giant Soldier of Stone
2k defense, a potential in, but Ill wait on Rank 3s before going for them.

Goblindbergh
If I get a N39 Hope, Instant in. Any card that make Hope easy to make is great IF you have a hope.

IN: Pot of Greed

Pack 4
Numbers 17 leviathan dragon
Spell Shield Type 8
Card Trooper
Gagaga Magician
Skill Successor

Leviathan Dragon.
Instant in, but I mentioned something about Rank 3s with Giant Soldier of Stone, Ducker, and Night Assailant right? Those have a high chance of coming into the deck thanks to this.
 How awesome would it be if I pulled Tour Guides? I already have some level 3 fiends (Night Assailant)

Spell Shield Type 8
Counter spells. Protect your monsters. Pretty good.

Card Trooper
More than killing something and getting killed back, Id like to use him to kill a 1900 and get a free card, but he mills ONE TENTH of your deck in one shot. Remember that. Unless we get a Monster Reborn, that is a BAD thing.

Gagaga Magician.
Not sold, as I only have 2 Exceeds so far, and no good level 2s for Gachigachi. If I get more variety of exceeds, he becomes viable.
Especially a Tyrus/Adreus.

Skill Successor
You cant ask for much more than this powerhouse in sealed.
TWO combat tricks in one card? Instant in.

Pack 5
Call of the Haunted
Miracles Wake
Gene Warped Warwolf
Tangrisnir of the Nordic Beasts
Mystical Space Typhoon

Hoh wow! Look at those 2 first cards!
TWO revival cards at once! Both in!
Call of the Haunted makes reviving big high level monsters much easier, while Miracles Wake makes great work for cards that force the opponent to trade, like 1900 attackers.
Miracles Wake is especially great with Card Trooper. Crash into something with 1900, get killed next turn, draw one, at the end of the turn revive him, next turn mill 3 to crash into the 1900, draw more.

Gene Warped Warwolf
2000 Attack.
Instant in.

Goat guy
He spawns 2 tokens, which can be tributed for a tribute summon.
With him around I want to be pulling high level monsters like White Nights Dragon, etc.
As I dont have too many of them around, I'm not sold on running him quite yet.

Mystical Space Typhoon
Because we're not the only ones with spells and traps. In.

So, lets review after 5 packs.



Heres what we pulled, and our "IN" pile so far is:
MST, Warwolf, Miracles Wake, Call of the Haunted, Skill Successor, Card Trooper, Spell Shield, Pot of Greed, Offerings to the Doomed, Zombyra the Dark, Shadow Spell, Grave Squirmer, Burden of the Mighty.
Extra deck: Gachigachi, Leviathan Dragon.



Next 5 packs!

Pack 6
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
Damage Gate
Ambitious Gofer
Level Eater
Level Eater

Gorz: Instant Win. I mean IN.
This guy... This guy... is everything wrong with the sealed format.
THAT BEING SAID, we are already running burden of the mighty, shadow spell, both of which will stay in the backrow(and shadow spell, without a reason, potentially if they exceed with the target), so not necessarily 100% the best thing to have around

Damage Gate
Not exactly sold on this card.
IF you take damage, you can special summon something... with less attack power from the graveyard. Im not sold on this, but there ARE cards that make this a potential pick.
Namely: Cards that tribute themselves for effects, or cards with "on destroyed" triggers.
Exiled Force, Grave Squirmer.
With this, my 1st pack's vortex trooper is looking more and more viable.

Ambitious Gofer
2400 ATK, potentially outright kills 2 monsters for no reason. I see nothing wrong. In.

2 Level Eaters
As of now, because I dont have... a bajillion Monarchs, no...
Kinda sucks to open 2 of these guys at once @.@

Pack 7
Grenosaurus
Forbidden Lance
Cyber Dragon
Noisy Gnat
Night Assailant

Grenosaurus is an Exceed. Since I already have Leviathan Dragon... No biggie.

Forbidden Lance.
AWWW YEAH
In sealed play, the Forbidden series of cards are just so powerful. As BOTH a combat trick and a protection card, youre looking at a real player in sealed.

Cyber Dragon
I have no qualms about this card. Its just good.

Noisy Gnat
One of the "useless cards" in the set. Kinda weird to see this here, and it is eating up a slot...
That being said, it might have uses to fix up exceeds. Considering I have 3 so far...

Night Assailant
Woo a second copy
I mentioned infinite loop/Hyper powered Killer Snake right?
Thats right. 2 Night Assailants = Infinite hand cost.
I REALLY want to open a Cybernetic Magician now.

8
Skill Drain
Shield Crush
Chiron the Mage
Hyper Hammerhead
Pot of Duality

POWER in a pack man.
Pot of Duality, Skill Drain?
TWO "Bomb" cards at once.
Skill Drain, thought isnt a straight IN pick.
We have yet to decide what cards we WILL be using, and our 1900/2000 power lineup isnt as big as we would like.
However, we DO have: Gorz, Zombyra, Genetic Warwolf, so drain is a possiblity.

Shield Crush is great fun. removes those pesky flip effects.

Chiron the Mage I think is great. Turns any spell into a MST, which can blow up contiuous cards like Metal Reflect Slime, etc. The 1800 isnt too bad either.
Just dont hit Fiendish Chain!

Hyper Hammerhead.
I would prefer a penguin soldier, but this suffices. opening with this guy gives you a good card to set.

9
Ring of Destruction
Half or Nothing
Jurrac Protops
Big Shield Gardna
Fortress Warrior

Ring of Destruction: Free chain destruction, free burn, banned for a very good reason.
In.

Half or Nothing.
Not exactly sold on the card. It doesnt stop an attack unless you have a half decent monster out, so not an isntant in

Jurrac Protops
Err... 1800 in a 1 on 1 battle? Not too great. We're looking for 1900 beaters. Those rule.

Big Shield Gardna
Big. Fat. Defense.
Instant in. I think hes one of the best cards in the whole sealed format, even. The 2700 defense is great for stopping things. They either have to go for a tribute monster, use removal, or have 2 or more monsters to attack, taking some life damage.
Did I mention Shadow Spell?
They attack with one, take damage, turns Big Shield to attack. Activate Shadow Spell on the other guy, and run him over next turn!

Fortress Warrior
I would take him as one of my best picks, for his combat resilience, and with Gachigachi, we have a damn good reason for keeping him on the field, but the lack of other level 2s really makes him less viable...
Seriously. the other level 2 is Noisy Gnat. Not happening.

Final PACK!
Tiras Keeper of Genesis
Exiled Force
Insect Knight
Level Warrior
Gem Knight Pearl

Tyrus!
Oh wow! One of THE best cards in the set... only also one of the hardest to get out.
My chances of getting this guy out are Cyber Dragon and Level Stealer plays... Not quite sold on playing him, unfortunately.

Insect Knight is a great beater.

Gemknight Pearl... Id like a Hope more, but whatever. a rank 4 exceed is a rank 4.

Level Warrior is an intersting one. Similar to Goblindburgh, it gets me my Rank 4 Pearl, but at the same time gives me more level 3s to play around with. It is a high maybe.

Finally, exiled force.
I believe 2 of my recursion traps work with him so far: Damage Gate and Call of the Haunted.
Just by himself, pretty good.
With those 2? Really good.
In.

So, to finish up, These were our second 5 packs cards



And Our cards overview.
Once again, take a look by yourself to the distribution of the better cards in each slot, and see which slots have cards to build around and 2 card combos.

Of these, we preliminarily picked:

14
Gorz
Cyber Dragon
Ambitious Gofer
Insect Kight
Gene Warped Warwolf
Zombyra the Dark
Card Trooper
Big Shield Gardna
Chiron the Mage
Grave Squirmer
Hyper Hammerhead
Exile Force
2 Night Assailant

7
Pot of Greed
Pot of Duality (Winning with 2 pots lol)
Mystical Space Typhoon
Burden of the Mighty
Offerings to teh Doomed
Forbidden Lance
Shield Crush

6
Skill Successor
Shadow Spell
Ring of Destruction
Spell Shield Type 8
Call of the Haunted
Miracles Wake

5 Exceeds
Gachigachi
Grenosaurus
Leviathan Dragon
Gemknight Pearl
Tyrus


Thats it for preliminary picks

Join us in part 2, right below this, for the rest of the deck building!

Making the Cut #1 - Part 2

Hey yo and welcome back to Making the Cut, where we build sealed deck together

As you know, Making the Cut is a potential series about opening and building your sealed battle pack deck.

In this half, we will be building the deck from the pulls.
Usually, we would only have to build a 30 card deck, but for the sake of exploring how to make cuts, we will make an additional 5 cuts, to go down to 25, so you can use similar thought schemes to make cuts.

First, lets review our pulls




And some of our preliminary picks

12
Gorz
Cyber Dragon
Ambitious Gofer
Insect Kight
Gene Warped Warwolf
Zombyra the Dark
Card Trooper
Big Shield Gardna
Chiron the Mage
Grave Squirmer
Hyper Hammerhead
Exiled Force

7
Pot of Greed
Pot of Duality
Mystical Space Typhoon
Burden of the Mighty
Offerings to teh Doomed
Forbidden Lance
Shield Crush

6
Skill Successor
Shadow Spell
Ring of Destruction
Spell Shield Type 8
Call of the Haunted
Miracles Wake

5 Exceeds
Gachigachi
Grenosaurus
Leviathan Dragon
Gemknight Pearl
Tyrus

Seems like its coming together, right?

After this is our 2nd line picks.
A 2nd line pick is a card that didnt jump straight out as playable, but still has potential.
Level Eater - This alone potentiates Tyrus. But we still lack some level 5s, other than Cyber Dragon, which brings us to...
Gagaga Magician - This card enables Rank 2, 3, 4, and 5 plays. we have each rank, but the weakest rank we have is 4. we want to be making Rank 5 with Tyrus and Rank 3 for Leviathan. This with Cyber Dragon equals Tyrus. Which almost always equals win.
Voltic Kong nad Jurrac Protops - Beatsticks that didnt quite make the preliminary picks
Damage Gate -It means making more Card Troopers, Reviving Exiled Force, and Big Shield Gardna. With some of the cards above, it makes exceeds much easier to play with
Giant Soldier of Stone - If we want to be making leviathan dragon, we need him.
Night Assailant - 2 of them. Although it is a flip effect to kill and a level 3 for Leviathan, we are also considering...
Skill Drain - The best of your "denying effects". Most of the cards work with drain out, with the exception of card trooper and Hyper Hammerhead.


So, lets smash those into the pile and build from that, cutting down to 30 and then 25
Right now, we have 34.

Now, ideally, your main build would want to be something like 14:10:6, of Monsters, spells, and traps.
However, I would prefer to rather have a total of 15 spells and traps, and 15 monsters. With some recursion going, you can even drop to 14 monsters.

So, right now we run 18 monsters, 9 traps, and 7 spells.
So, what we want to be cutting is monsters.

But, before that, we should take some time to review what the deck does well, and more importantly, what it does NOT do well.

So, we run 3 Cards that kill monsters when they get attacked, and one monster that kills monsters when it tributes itself.
For Traps and spells, we have 3 Cards that kill an opponents monsters straight.

Thats 7 Kill Cards, actually a tad bit over.
You want to always have one, so you need about 6. I would cut one Night Assailant. Goodbye infinite combo with non existant Cyber Magician.

Damage Gate and Miracles Afterglow are two cards that do similar jobs: Recursion.
Whilst Miracles Afterglow lets you get your monster back after they use a combat trick to get rid of it, Damage Gate gives more synergy with Card Trooper and Grave Squirmer
I would pick Miracles Wake, as its ability to turn a combat trick to nothing is what we want to be taking.

Now, for the final 2 cuts, I chose Jurrac Protops and Gagaga Magician. While Dropping Gagaga Magician means that I wont have Tyrus, I guess its what my card pool tells me, that I will have to focus on low level monster combat, and use removal on anything bigger.

So now, we are down to 30 Cards.

Monsters
Beaters
Insect Knight
Gene Warped Warwolf
Zombyra the Dark
Chiron the Mage
Cyber Dragon
Voltic Kong
Card Trooper
Ambtious Gofer

Killers
Exiled Force
Night Assailant
Grave Squirmer

Turtlers
Hyperhammerhead
Big Shield Gardna
Giant Soldier of Stone

Broken
Gorz

Spells
Pot of Duality
Pot of Greed
Mystical Space Typhoon
Burden of the Mighty
Offerings to teh Doomed
Forbidden Lance
Shield Crash

Traps
Half or Nothing
Skill Successor
Shadow Spell
Ring of Destruction
Call of the Haunted
Miracles Wkae
Skill Drain


What about if we had to cut another 5 cards down to 25?

So, the cards I would cut out would be:
Night Assailant
Giant Soldier of Stone
Hyper Hammerhead
With less cards in the deck, you need less monsters to fight around, and you need less monsters to turtle. As the monster killer count is much higher rate, you dont need quite as much.
As I dropped Giant Soldier of Stone, Night Assailant would go next, as, well, theres no good reason to make rank 3 exceeds anymore, and so flipping him then going for the rank 3 is gone.
Also, Hyper Hammer Head is also cut.
Note that although I did cut it in the early stages, it was to maintain good tempo, and to one shot kill some exceed monsters. Since I have ring of destruction, a 1st turn Hyper Hammerhead, set a MST, and clear their field and smash through and get ahead in damage racing would put me in the win.
An alternative would to be to drop Voltic Kong instead, as, it is "just" an 1800 beater.

For Traps, I dropped Miracles Wake and Half or Nothing.
Half or Nothing may seem obvious. it was just a stall card that put me in advantage for damage dealt so I can finish with Ring of Destruction
Miracles Wake, however, was because I dropped the Rank 3 Exceeds. The Synergy to make a Rank 3 easily with a Night assailant that got attacked is there because you had some other level 3s with the ability to keep themselves on the board. Drop one, drop all.


So, in the end, this is what our deck turned out like

What about you? What do you think?

How would you build it differently?


And now, we shall do an all important step: Putting the cards back into the packs!
The more you practice with sealed play, instead of throwing away the packs, I keep the empty packs, and record what cards are in what order, returning them so next time, I just have to open the tin, pull out 10 random packs, and build!
It does get much better once you have 30-40 packs to your pool.


And lastly and most importantly, feedback!
What do you think about the way I wrote the post?
What changes do you think could be made to the post, and most importantly,
Do you want to see more of these posts on sealed play/Alternative formats?

/sezuar

Heart Earth post #2

Special Summon Heiratic Tofeni Dragon
Release for Sphere of Chaos.
Simultaneous effects go on chain, Special summon Curse of Dragon from the deck, and search Garbage Ogre in whatever order.
Discard Ogre, search Garbage Lord, special summon Garbage Lord.

Overlay the 3 Level 5s. Heart Earth Dragon!

Special Summon OoParts Crystal Bones
Effect to fish up Golden Shuttle
Golden Shuttle to raise its own level by 1.
Tribute Ooparts Crystal Bones for Sphere of Chaos

Search for Garbage Ogre.
Discard Ogre, search Garbage Lord, special summon Garbage Lord.

Overlay the 3 level 5s.

Stranger Waters

So battle packs and sealed have made all sorts of a splash in the TCG with mixed reactions to the format of sealed.

But what people dont realize is that Yugioh is trying to expand their formats as well.

Each shop runs not only standard events with advanced constructed decks, but "sub formats" supported by konami as well.

They havent been around for a whole while, and I have no idea about much of the reactions to it, but it is a start.

They all fall under the umbrella of "casual formats" where you have certain rules to apply to deck building/playing.

Now, I've played many card games in the past and for the most part, casual formats... usually arent that big a thing (Sans Commander for MTG.)

Why?
Because the game was not really designed to function in that format, bad format design, etc.
The casual format will only really grow if there is the community to grow it.

Even tag team duels, as seen in Yugioh and Vanguard, have to stretch their rules a bit. Its quite different, and hence, not very popular.

As for the formats Konami is experimenting with:
Most of my experience comes from watching these games at Konami Card game station, so yeah.

Sealed play, which everyone knows about.

Ante tournament, where each player starts with a certain amount of chips/points, and bet them in duels. At the end of the time, the players are ranked according to the number they have, with 1 game per match up, and cycling through many players.
Less a format than a tournament style, but blah.

All 1 Element deck
All 1 monster type decks
both of these are similar, I guess, falling under Tribal decks. I actually have no idea why Konami is pushing this format

Tag duel tournaments
Supporting the tag duel format more.


Duel Field Happenings
I personally think this format is 1: Named stupidly and 2: Is such a blatant rip off of MTG's Planechase its not even funny

During the duel, there is a separate deck for "Happenings", effects that will pop up and change at the end of each turn. This happens between the turns
Most cards tend to be continuous cards, like Spatial Collapse, which changes how many cards can be out on the field to 5 per player, Ground collapse, which knocks out monster zones
Or Wall of Revealing Light for 2500, or Skill drain and Soul Drain. or Summon Limiter.
In the deck are forbidden cards like Royal Oppression, Royal Order(Imperial Order?)(The thing that negates spells), and Card of Safe return, Temple of Kings, etc
Things you can activate while its around (Mass Driver)
There also are Field spells in the happening deck, which replace the field for one turn before disappearing, and things that dont actually do much, just be around, because you either dont interact with them or neither player has cards that do(That cont. spell that deals 300 damage more when you get burned)
Also included are one shot cards that happen and disappear, leaving you with no "happening" for the rest of the turn. Cards like Heavy Storm and Dark Hole, or Special Hurricane

They even include original cards, such as one that removes all exceed materials from the field, and an interesting card that CHANGES YOUR OPPONENT with the opponent playing on the same table next to you.
No I have no idea how that last one works.

This is actually an interesting concept to work with, and people 'could' go out and build "Happening decks"  Plane/Planar Event decks to use themselves.

Call the format Instability or something.
Or planechase.


And one of my favorites:

Add one forbidden card to the deck format.

Its exactly as it says, you may use up to one forbidden card in your deck.
It does open a lot of floodgates, but it is only one forbidden card.
Then again, it is just ONE forbidden card.

Some forbidden cards are much more overpowered than others, and some require specific cards to support it.

For instance, most people would think Pot of Greed would be a top choice, but what it does for the deck is give it an one shot 2 draw.
Compare to, say: Graceful Charity in darkworlds. Broke. As. Fuck.

What about Disk Commander? Some decks would play it over pot of greed because, well, the REST of the turbo deck isnt banned.

What about Trishula? Everyone hates trishula.
And Brionac. Live back your favorite infinite loop FTKs

Did I mention Dark Dive Bomber?
Who needs to draw into the =ONE= Forbidden card in your deck with luck when you can just synchro this guy out anytime?

What eventually happens is that people play in more combo-y forbidden cards than the ones with Sheer one sided power.
Like snatch steal. Nobody plays snatch steal in this format. Or Brain Control. Even Raigeki or Makyura has their arent even played. Because you can only play one forbidden card.

Also, for some reason the tournaments are only one game for 20 minuites. No idea why.


/sezuar

So like, the new Flame stuff

To counter:

Dark Simorgh.
The opponent cannot set cards.

Over Spec.
As long as they have any of their continuous spells going, Thunder Bolt on a free chain.

Malevolent Catastrophe.
One shot to nuke their backrow.

Gemini and Effect Veilers

Although you would understand this simple interaction if you actually read cards, I have to write about this because people are retarded.

Geminis get through Effect Veiler and Fiendish Chain.

See, both Veiler and Fiendish Chain specify an effect monster as the effect target.

Hence, you cannot activate Fiendish Chain on things like Another Neos. It might pop up in a game or 2, eliminating their ability to stop your attack

And you cannot Veiler Gemini monsters before they re-summon.

However, you can veiler/chain one before it gets its effect. Heres how:
They have a gemini out, and  you have a Fiendish Chain set.
The use their normal summon to change their Gemini to an effect monster. This does not start a chain but can be negated via solemn warning, etc.
This resolves, and priority is passed to you (the opponent) to respond to the summon.
At this timing, if you throw Veiler/Chain, you can stop the effect, as the chain is triggered by "link 0" of the effect monster being successfully summoned.

However, with supervis, as it re-summons via an effect, you cannot stop it with Veiler.

Lets assume you have a fiendish chain and a Sangan set.
Youre an idiot because you didnt set that torrential instead, but oh well. And a Reckless Charge or something.

They special summon Heiratic seal of the Dragon king via Swing of Memories.
At this point, it is still a normal monster, and hence cannot be Chained.

They activate supervis, targeting the seal.
Supervis goes onto chain 1, and whatever free chains happen after that.
However, as the seal is still a normal monster before Supervis gets attached, it is not a legal target for your fiendish chain

Once supervis(chain 1) has finished resolving, however, turn player has priority to activate their effects. Hence, the turn player retains priority to activate any effects(Seal of dragon king) before you can respond.

If they do something like activate something else, enter another phase, etc, you can respond to that by activating your Veiler/Chain


Edit: So apparently you cannot retain priority and activate spell speed 1 things. My bad. So you can be veiler'd. It will boil down to you explaining how gemini's are normal monsters while face up on the field, effect veiler can only hit effect monsters, and pray they dont remember it "Becomes an effect monster"

/Sezuar

Heiratics

18
3 Heiratic Seal of Dragon King
2 Debris Dragon
3 Heiratic Dragon of Tefnuit
3 Heiratic Dragon of Su
2 Heiratic Dragon of Nebthet
2 Heiratic Dragon of Aset
1 Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
1 Blue Eyes White Dragon
1 Wattail  Dragon

18
3 Armory Hole
3 Supervis
1 Symbols of Duty
1 Foolish Burial
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Night Beam
2 Pot of Duality
1 Heiratic Seal of Convocation
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
4
3 Royal Decree
1 Heiratic Seal from the Ashes

So I recently found out that nobody plays heiratics anymore.

Because they "Neutered" the deck by killing Seal of Convocation and Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

Well I'm here today to tell you that you all suck at thinking outside the box.

Theres no problem with everyone reading crap like Whatever Games or the Konami site, but there is a problem when those site have no insight beyond the blatantly obvious.


So, what about Heiratics.

Well, what people dont realize is that Heiratic Seal of the Dragon king is a card.

 

Its a level 6 0/0 Gemini Dragon.

Just this alone gives is so much interaction with the deck. Revive it with the Heiratics from the graveyard, revive with debris dragon, easy overlays, etc.

Of course, you cant grab it from the deck with a Heiratic because geminis in the deck are EFFECT monsters

Also worth noting is that being a level 6 dragon

So what does that mean?



This is what that means.

Three heads of 3000 ATK going to eat you alive.

Heiratic Seal of the Dragon King is the first ever level 6 dragon monster with less than 500 ATK, meaning it does equal a one card Trident Dragion


Onto the effect.
By Tributing this card, special summon one Heiratic from your deck/hand/graveyard.

For those who dont get it, its REALLY GOOD.

Tack on a Supervis, tribute itself, special summon another heiratic, special summon either the Seal or a Blue Eyes White Dragon via Supervis.

The deck runs extra Armory Hole to fetch these Supervis for you. This guy is your new convocation. Who needs to search when you can just fetch them from the deck?


Revive it with Debris Dragon, tack on a Supervis, Synchro into Trident Dragion, and revive the seal for another go with Supervis.

Note that in this situation Trident Dragion will be summoned, and Supervis (compulsary effect) will go on Chain 1, and Trident will go onto Chain 2. Trident will not be able to target the seal to blow up for another attack, but with him out already, who cares?

Most of the rest of the Heiratic deck builds itself, so I will be explaining the remaining choices

3 Armory Hole
Because who the hell normal summons? You're playing Yugioh, not vanguard.
Card Car D is more often better fed to Machina Fortress noawadays.

1 Symbols of Duty
Because everyone loves monster reborn, and Heiratics often use this just to facilitate more special summoning And for the extra level 4s for the Shock Master to stop Gorz.
Also, forcing the deck out against Max C is awesome.

1 Heiratic Seal from the Ashes
The card seemed cute enough.
Also, the tiny bit more searching out the Seal of the Dragon King really helps. It functions as your pseudo foolish burial, as like I mentioned before, you need to get one Seal out into field/graveyard before the deck starts going crazy.

3 Cyclone
Because back row is for pussies, and you need to spread that message.

2 Night Beam
No, seriously. Fuck back row.

3 Royal Decree
Really.

/Sezuar


Oh, and apparently I messed up the auto post scheduling. Hence the lack of posts for so long.
I only checked like today. I missed almost a whole month!

Chaos Exceed Change

Keep in mind that Chaos Exceed Change only takes into account the monsters name when exceed changing.

Meaning you can use Phantom of Chaos and copy a Shark Drake and become Shark Drake Vice
Use N. black panther to copy a Hope and become Hope Ray.

Galaxy Queens Light

Can be searched with Galaxy Wizard.
Which goes right into Feelings towards a Future.
Search Queens Light with Wizard, activate Feelings to a future, make all level 8, make Neo Galaxy Eyes.

Combo with Galaxy Eyes

Some simple combos with galaxy eyes

Activate black garden, and summon galaxy eyes. Attack a token, jump both out, return it with 3000atk.

Send one of your fortune lady lighty to the opponents field, attack it with galaxy eyes. Jump both out with effect, then activate fortune lady lightys effect, as you are the owner of the card. Special summon something, direct attack. At the end of the turn, lighty returns to their field, and you get galaxy eyes back. Unless they get rid of lighty they are stuck with having the same thing happen next turn.

Why people quite Yugioh for Vanguard

Have you ever wondered?

Have you ever wondered WHY so many people are making the exodus from Yugioh towards Vanguard?

There are many, many other games out there that people can move to, so why do people choose to move towards Vanguard?
To name a few examples, theres the omnipresent MTG, but there was also Battle Spirits, the newly released ZX, and many more. Even within the Trading Card Game genre, there were so many other options.

Well, as with any exodus, there are two factors: Push, and Pull.
Push Factors are factors which cause someone to want to quit the game.
Pull Factors are factors which cause people to want to start the game.
An exodus is, with anything, these factors applying to a massive amount of people in a short time.




We shall start with the Push Factors, shall we?

Not all archetypes are made equal.

This was always true. All archetypes are designed around certain concepts. Some of those concepts just, thanks to the nature of the game design, better than others.
Special summoning while destroying things is very good in yugioh.
Easy special summoning and superior combat potential is very good in yugioh
Reviving cards and synchroing into monsters is very good in yugioh
Weak monsters with mediocre effects that combo into cards that make you give up 3 or more cards for one medium powered monster? Less so.

This is very true in any card game, actually. Not all archetypes end up equal or even close to it.
Some ideas and concepts are just so bad, they just flop.
Sometimes, is the meta that causes it to flop, and other times its just certain overpowered cards that push certain decks that use it over the top.


Less Reliance on Skill

Yugioh has always been heavily reliant on individual card power and comboes more than anything else.
 Because of lack of anything to mediate game tempo, such as Mana in MTG and Duel Masters, Cores in Battle Spirits, or Grades in Vanguard, or "Resources"(lol) in ZX, in Yugioh, you can do a lot of things in one turn without the opponent having equal opportunity to do so(to a certain extent)
Now, Yugioh did FINE without anything to mediate game tempo, in fact becoming one of the most successful card games in the history of card games, despite this being the glaring design flaw.
Because of this ability to do a bajillion things without much limit, deck design and card power were much more factors in the game.
Some players leave in search of a more difficult/demanding game.
The game never gets old. Players do. They look for something different now that they feel they are more mature.

The Meta.

Its disgusting.
The meta from Mid 2011 to mid 2012 is/was disgusting.
Insectors, Heiratics, Ritua first turn strip hand, Wind Ups loop strip hand, Dark Worlds being Dark Worlds.
Heroes went from being Metabeat to another ridiculous OTK,
September 2011 destroyed some of the best Synchros and their engines, and the meta turned to becoming exceed dominated, leading people to say "Exceeds are the worst thing to happen to the game".

BUT, compare the metas to previous ones.
What about when BF first came out?
What about TeleDAD.

Although compared to now, it seems like a much more fair and less overpowered,
What about when they came out?
They each were so overwhelming for the meta to handle, JUST AS Insektors and Heiratics and such have been to their predecessors.

The difference is that less people were thinking and innovating, and that there were less people finding ways to out-play these decks, etc.
Each of the top tier decks, when they first come out, made a splash.
THEN, people learned that NOTHING IS INVINCIBLE.

The difference was that less people were aware of  it this time around.
Many of the good players that would turn the gears of the game dissappeared, for one reason or another.
Some players made different decks
Some players made completely new deck types.
Some players developed concepts to beat the meta.

Nowadays, people hardly look beyond their "Staples" and their archetype that was handed to them.
Some of the best decks in history had to pull upon a huge variety of cards from throughout history to build the deck, to make it work.
Compare Tele-Dad to Goat Control to Gishki.
TeleDAD and Goat Control both used a wide variety of cards throughout the seasons. Gishki only uses their Gishki cards

Because of this lack of innovation, ways of using different combination of card, instead of just the same old combos.
Its not the game designers fault, its the players.
The "Top Faces" dont innovate, and Innovators dont become "Top Faces"
Hence, people see the same thing every time they play, be it locals, casual, or tournament play.

Its boring.



"Too Kiddy"
People considered Yugioh ZEXAL to be a move towards a more kiddy air and less towards the "more mature" audience of middle and high schoolers.
Especially from 5Ds, which wasnt exactly for middle schoolers even, this was a huge change.
Most of the audience that liked 5Ds did NOT like ZEXAL, and after a few attempts to keep up with change, and didnt like it.
The change in season and series is a choice, but the choice was for Konami, as, in fact, they have increased their sales, as the new ZEXAL instead targets the younger audience. Konami is cycling out its older audience(20s-30s) for a newer (6-18s). This newer audience will be buying Yugioh for a few more years. Its a sound marketing strategem.
Which makes this another push factor. The game is no longer marketed towards you, so OF COURSE you feel like its not appealing towards you. Its NOT MEANT TO.


"My friends are quitting"
Simple. A cumulation of the previous factors contribute to this. More people leaving is not a direct linear relation, its a exponential change. Players network with each other. Losing players damages their network, allowing for more players to escape.


Pull Factors
yes yes there are many more, but then again I am not omniscient. I am merely hitting up the more common ones.

So whats appealing about specifically Vanguard?

Well, from my observations, one of the reason why Vanguard is so appealing is that it was new when Yugioh was throwing off their players.
It was a matter of good timing. People want to quit a card game, yet cant throw off their social support represented by the other card gamers. They start Vanguard, which is new, and they can shape to their desire.
"They want to jump off one train, and LOOK! THERES ANOTHER TRAIN! I like trains, we should ride that train!"


Also, from first observations, Vanguard seems like its doing everything right that Yugioh isnt.
I use the term "Seems like" because its only after youve been playing for a while that the problems arent really solved.

For instance:

All Clans are created equal.

From a person whoes been playing a game where archetypes are anything BUT equal, its very appealing. To be able to use and win with anything they want to play. Wow.

Its cheap.

Thats because Yugioh has the bad reputation of having the top deck use obscure cards that become worth 50+ USD each. Both by Konami and by players.
Vanguard curbs this slightly. The value of cards usually doesnt go over 20, and rarely, 30(American markets seem expensive for some reason)


There are no "Staples"

Because even the most seasoned of deckbuilders(such as myself. Thanks for your applause) get tired of pulling up a template of staples then building around it.


You can play what you want and win!
Because triggers!
And because in Yugioh, you most certainly can not.

The Art is pretty
I actually have no counter-argument for this. In all the games I have ever seen, Vanguard has what I feel is the best art and Design.
Because of this, it appeals a lot to a lot of collectors. Its true.

As for game play, Yugioh and Vanguard are vastly different.
Theyre no way similar.
Saying you prefer one to the other is like saying "Oh I've liked pears for 10 years now, but now that I have tasted Apples, I like apples better than anything in the world!"

And these are some of the more common reasons why people choose to jump to Vanguard.



But what about the reality?

What has someone who has come from beyond the brink have to say about the reasons why people are jumping to Vanguard?
Is the reasons for moving to Vanguard really all that sound?

Simple combo

Lightray Daedalus + Seal of Orihalchos.

The Convulsing Oath

Good day everyone,
As for the past few day's posts, I realize I did not post them because I had not realized a day had passed, and messed up on the scheduling of posts, and some were scheduled to arrive in 2013, etc.

As for today, we will revisit an old idea with a new trick up its sleeve.

I have visited the same idea as today a long time ago

The combat plan was simple: Know the top card of your deck, and use cards such as Dimension Alchemist, Diamond Guy, Archfiends Oath and Sunlight Unicorn  to get effectively free advantage.

There were several problems with the deck.


For starters, there was far too little ability to protect their own advantage engines of Sunlight Unicorn and Diamond Guy, as well as being too reliant on Archfiends Oath to take full advantage of the top card knowledge

Another reason was that the advantage itself did not mount to much because of Sunlight Unicorn searched equip spells which, by design, arent all that great.

Now, what has changed since then?

No good equip spells that are generic enough to fit, so Sunlight Unicorn is unfortunately out the window.

But the concept has gained a new weapon in the form of Ritua Diviner.

Water/Level 3/Sea Serpent/1200/800
Once a turn, you can declare a card name. Reveal the top card of your deck. If its the named card, add it to your hand. If not, return it to the top of your deck.

Just from this, these are the first few comboes that come to mind quickly when I saw this card:
1. Level 3 into Leviair. Use effect, grab free card, make Leviar, another free card. Any level 3 support
2: Water: Absolute Zero.
3: Sea Serpent: Deep Sea Diva
4: Effect: Call the top card, get it wrong, combo with Archfiend Oath/Sunlight Unicorn/Diamond Guy/Dimension Alchemist
5: Ritua: Revive with Ritua Beast, use effect, get free card, Release both into ritual.
6: Combo with Ritua Chain
7: Surfacing, Get effect, exceed/synchro
8: Inferno Reckless Summon. Get anywhere from 1 to 3 free cards.
9: Zombie Carrier.
10: Salvage for advantage.

Of course, you dont have to abuse each and every combo possible. Merely the few ones that have connections or will connect with each other.

For instance, the peeping effect when you get the card wrong combos well with Destiny Hero, which is also a hero, which links right back to Absolute Zero and Zombie Carrier. Absolute Zero also connects with Diva, which connects back to Diviner and Surfacing, as well as Salvage.

So after the brainstorming, combining with Convulsion of Nature, Diamond Guy, and Archfiends Oath was chosen, with Miracle Fusion as another sealing factor between the two.
Utilization of the RoTA, Emergency Call, and Stratos engine was included of course, as the amount of combination between the engine and Diamond Guy itself was too much to pass up.

Archfiends Oath had a double link with BF Zephyros the Elite, as well as the other cards.
You can use Archfiends Oath to dump a BF Zephyros, and Zephyros can easily use Archfiends Oath to get itself back to the field. Easy rank 4 into Hope is only too beneficial

D.D. Designator is a card that combines the abilities of Diamond Dude as well as Convulsion of Natures effects together. Being a normal spell, Diamond Dude can use it, and Convulsion of Nature's information advantage is skewed towards yourself instead of being equal.

13
2 Deep Sea Diva
3 Ritua Diviner
1 E Hero Stratos
1 E Hero Bubbleman
3 D Hero Diamond Guy
1 D Hero Dasher Guy
1 BF Zephyros the Elite
1 Plagespreader Zombie

23
2 Miracle Fusion
1 RoTA
1 E- Emergency Call
1 Monster Reborn
2 Pot of Duality
2 Destiny Draw
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole2 D.D. Designator
 
3 Convulsion of Nature
3 Archfiend Oath
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
5
2 Starlight Road
1 Solemn Judgement
2 Bottomless Trap Hole

The battle plan is simple and straightforwards.
Instead of using Diamond Guy as a direct advantage engine, utilize him and Diviner as instead a stepping stone that gives free advantage with Convulsion of Nature, forming Synchros and Exceeds.
The deck runs 15 normal spells to maximize the effect of Diamond Guy.

Moon Barrier

If you attack with Hope into a full powered Light and Darkness dragon, and detach one to active the effect, Light and Darkness will negate the attack negation, and the attack will go through running over Light and Darkness with the 2500 ATK
Dragging down their entire field with them

Utility Traps

There are 2 general types of traps:

The traps that specifically support an archetype, and traps that, by design, can fit in any deck.

Traps that support archetypes are their own individual discussion.

But cards that fit in any deck, this is where the real discussion is.


Take a look at your favorite deck.
Go on, pull it out.

Its trap line up probally contains some combination of the following general use cards:

Solemn Judgement
Compulsary Evacuation Device
Bottomless Trap Hole
Call of the Haunted
Torrential Tribute
Magic Cylinder
Mirror Force
Dust TornadoRoyal Decree
Raigeki Break
Sakuretsu Armor(In the past, no longer)
 Royal Oppression(Banned)








Dimension Prison
Pheonix Wing Wind Blast

Solemn Warning
Fiendish Chain
Trap Stun
Starlight Road

You may be thinking why I divided up the general use traps into these 3 categories.
Well, it was supposed to be 4 categories.

Well, its when they first came out, the season in which they first came out.
The first category is during the first anime, the second with GX, and 3rd is 5Ds.

Notice something about the 4 categories?
Thats right, The first list of traps that the majority of decks is entirely from the oldEST generation.

Unlike spells, when the regular lineup changes almost every season with quite a few additions, the traps have next to no change.
In fact, Dimension Prison and PWWB are complete upgrades of old cards, so if they were never released, we would all still be running Sakuretsu armor and Raigeki break to this day.

After the first season, there are a grand total of VERY FEW additions to the large category of "Regulars" for the trap lineup.

Why is this so?

Well, for starters, spells represent progressing your own game plan, while traps represent something to fall back on.

And, as such, people are unwilling to let that be changed.

Thus, instead of picking different cards, people go back to the same cards and tricks over and over again, instead of looking to different potential choices.

Every set, I can identify a few, not many, traps that were designed to potentially fit into this slot, but unfortunately, not all of them make it.

Cards like Safe Zone, Claymore Dud come to mind.
more recently, Magic Deflecter and Dimension Slice, Attention, etc.



As you can clearly see, there are other choices in the game.
In fact, in examples such as Safe Zone and Claymore Dud, from the 3rd Generation, they serve a dual purpose of both removal as well as preserving your monsters.
On the other hand, the newer generation 4 cards tend to be single use and less flexible, but also less reliant on specific conditions to be either effect as the first 2 were.

Final Tuning

So, Final Tuning.

Normal Spell.
Select one level 3 monster on your field. Special summon one monster with the same name from your hand or graveyard with its effect negated. At the end phase of the turn, destroy that monster.

So, what are the myriad ways to use and abuse this card?

Although there is the term "Tuning", its rather hard to tune with either 2 Tuners and 2 Non Tuners, right?

Or is it?
Phantom Lord Hyde Ride is a tuner that allows itself to be used alongside another tuner as synchro material.
But that requires a Hyde Ride already in the graveyard.
Hyde Ride is tutorable by Tour Guide, so it gives your level 3 deck quick access to some level 6 Synchros with the added option of going for an Exceed.

What about cards that are good together, when you have 2 or more of the same monster out?
My prime example of that would be Armored Fly, a card from way back that would drop down to 1000/1000 if you had no other Armored Flies.
But what about Photon Saber Tiger, in a similar note? Summon one, search your deck for one, pull out a Final Tuning for a third. You have one in your hand, two 2k beaters out, and are going to make a R3 Exceed.

Another interesting use is in a Gagaga Exceed deck.
Not for Gagaga Magician, but for Gagaga Girl. Use this card to grab back a second Gagaga Girl, and exceed something like Senmaine, and turn not one, but two monsters to 0ATK! If you had one Gagaga Magician out, you could even make the Gagaga Girls a different level.
How about making them all level 8, turning 2 monsters to 0, and bringing out Neo Photon Galaxy Eyes. With the support of Gagaga Revenge, lining up a few Gagagas is no problem.
Access to Gagaga Kaiser as an alternate target is handy as well.

Another thought is to change the name of monsters.
The first card to mind is Proto Cyber Dragon. Need another Cyber Dragon to Power Bond into a Cyber End Dragon? This is the card for you.

Although it is a lot of effort, you could change levels of a monster just to revive another copy.

What about Gladiator Beasts?

Tag out to Murmillo, kill one monster. Activate Hero Mask, choosing Prisma. Send Prisma to the graveyard, and activate Final Tuning. Revive the Prisma, send a Beastiari, Tag both back for Gyzarus. Rip through 2 more cards. Beastiari is in the graveyard ready for the Darius-ing.

Recruiters?
Masked Dragon into Another Masked Dragon. Use Final tuning to fetch another copy and make a Rank 3.

Debris Dragon into Glow Moss. Final Tuning into another Glow Moss. Make a level 10 Dragon.

And you thought it was a useless card.

Ignoble Knight

Ignoble Knight Lancelot Laundry Laundsallyn
Level 5/Dark/Warrior/2000/800
You can only control one Laundsallyn
Send one Normal LIGHT monster from your field to the graveyard to special summon this monster from the hand or graveyard.
Once a turn, you can tribute a face up Noble Knight monster to add one Noble Arms from your deck to your hand. This effect can only be activated once a turn.


Although it seems to be a bad card on first thought, it actually is hiding very abusable potential.
That is, that you can send one Normal Light monster from your field to revive himself from the graveyard.

If you can get that Normal Light monster at next to no cost, which normal monsters usually are, it is an easy and free 2k Attacker, or a level 5 for the exceed summon.

Now, what sort of decks have easy access to Light Normal Monsters?

From top tables, Heiratics, Heroes with their Alius.
Branching out from there, Blue Eyes White Dragon decks, Ojama decks, TG Agents.

Although Heroes comes up, usability is a huge issue there.
Giving up a Neos Alius or Sparkman for Ignoble Knight is a huge sacrifice. It ensures your monsters are in the graveyard, but its only a 100/400 jump in power. Not quite enough to merit a sacrifice.

Heiratics might be a go to choice, as lining up level 5s for the exceed is extremely easy with Heiratics, and with Ignoble knight in the mix, you start lining up 4 or 5 level 5s at once with ease.


The two main decks I find Ignoble Knight fits into are Ojamas and Agents.

Lets start with Agents. The obvious sacrifice target is Mystical Shine Ball.
With plays like Venus -> 3 Shine Balls -> Sacrifice one for Ignoble Knight, make a Gachi Gachi Gantetsu, letting ignoble knight turns your previously useless sacrificial lambs into something of a threat.

But, agents only have sort of an one shot at this +3 advantage combo. What about something more stable in being able to generate empty advantage to turn into Ignoble Knight.

Of course, we are talking about Ojamas.

Everyone is already familiar with the rampant advantage Ojamas create. Its +2s, +3s, or even +4s left right and center.
The main problem is that their advantage... never really did anything.
And now, with exceeds and Ignoble Knight, they have full access to an arsenal of powerhouses for next to no cost.

Another thing Ojamas can do is Junk synchron plays.
Summon a Junk Synchron and revive an Ojama. Send that Ojama to the graveyard to revive Ignoble Knight, and Synchro for a Junk Destroyer, ripping open one card on the opponents field.
Not to mention plays with Debris Dragon as well.
Summon a Debris Dragon, and revive an Ojama in ATK position. Plop down an Ojama Country and make them 2000 and 1000 attack respectively. Discard Ignoble knight to revive an Ojama, swing for 4k, and main phase 2 create a Ignoble Knight and Iron Chain Dragon for the even higher power on the defense.

Whether or not igNOBLE knight can tribute itself for the search is yet to be confirmed.

Heart Earth

Heart Earth and the monster it becomes, Heart Earth Dragon, are both cards that are highly looked towards for Cosmo Blazer.

Heart Earth is a rank 5 Dark Fiend with 100/100, made by 3 level 5s.
Once a turn, when it is targeted for an attack, it will gain the original attack of the attacking monster until the end phase.
Also, instead of being destroyed, you may remove exceed materials from under it.
If the card is destroyed with no exceed materials on it, you may return it from the graveyard as the exceed material for Heart Earth Dragon.

Heart Earth Dragon itself is amazingly powerful, but requires 3 level 9s. So, instead of getting that ridiculous number out, how about focusing on getting it through Heart EartH?


Now, Heart Earth poses a few problems:
1: It only gains attack on the first attack when its being attacked
- This means that it is useless on the offense, unless you are running him into a monster just to kill off a material at the cost of massive life.
2: The opponent wont destroy Heart Earth.
- It becomes a stall card. They wont actively destroy Heart Earth, because it means getting a Hearth Earth dragon out. They will only start to remove it when they can deal with the threat of the potential Heart Earth Dragon
 3:  Its 3 level 5s. Last time I checked, its hard to normal summon 3 level 5s in one turn.
- We special summon.
4: If your opponent wont get rid of the Exceed materials, you gotta do it yourself.

So, unless you specifically address these very problematic problems, you are getting yourself a giant wall that keeps itself on the field for 3 level 5s.
Which... is already done by Tyras and Crimison Shadow.

So, lets address each of these individual problems.
First, bringing out 3 level 5s with next to no effort.
The go to answer is to special summon 3 of them from your hand.

Now, while it may seem extremely easy for level 4s, the amount of special summoning happening for monsters of level 5 isnt exactly quality.
On top of that, you have to address the consistency issue by making them compatible with some draw power and deck sifting power. Last time I checked, Trade In only uses level 8.

So, What is our solution?
Our solution is Fiendish. We use Gates of the Dark World.
By utilizing Dark World, you ensure a potential beatdown of Gold and Silver, whilst providing level 5s for Exceed summoning.
Also, Allure.

Now, this once a turn is never enough, and relying only on Dark world will never get you those 3 level 5s.
So, you employ another fiend with special summon abilities: Soul Convoy.
Although its Light itself, by running both light/dark gives you instant access to Chaos Sorcerer and Chaos Soldier, and the Dark World is already providing discard outlet and draw source.
While you're at it, might as well run some Cyber Dragons and Priest of the Sun for the Light Targets.

Try running One Supay or Fire Ant Askator. Askator is a level 3 tuner, giving access to level 8 synchros at the same time as providing some recursion for level 5s.
On the other hand, Supay is a level 1 tuner. Which means Formula Synchron.
With what other level 1? We'll come to that soon.

At any rate, the Priest of the Sun that both of these go with is Inferno Reckless Summon-able, so be ready for 2 card Heart Earth's.

If you run Inferno Reckless Summon, try running Vice Dragon as well. It is a similar special summon to Cyber Dragon, but will fall under inferno reckless summon, and is Dark. Choose accordingly to your light dark balance, and needs.

Now it comes to destroying this guy over and over by your own.
Or... rather, removing the exceed materials.

The reason I bring this up is that Heart Earth is one of the few cards that has extra exceed materials that you WANT to get rid of, as opposed to keeping them on.

Thus comes cards that have never before been seriously considered, cards such as Exceed Gift, and Kuribolt.
For Exceed Gift, it gets rid of 2 of your materials, whilst pushing your draw power.
On the other hand, Kuribolt gives you numerous level 1s, usable either for tributes or Exceed monsters.

One good way to take advantage of Exceed gift it to combo with Gaia Dragoon. Simply exceed change some monster that cant do anything, and burn off their exceed materials to draw.
Similarly to Hope Ray. You wont be using Hope Ray + 3 Zeal Weapons to win anything. You dont have plot armor. Exceed change a Hope youve spent up, and feed the material to Exceed gift.

Finally, what if you brought back Heart eartH with zero materials, such as with Call of the Haunted in response to a Cyclone? It would trigger as it is a compulsary effect.
But, in a similar way to Yubel, use Limit Reverse to revive it, and turn it defense on your own turn to self detonate it, and transform to Heart eartH Dragon.

Thats all for today.